Georgia & Florida Railroad Great Northern Railway Green Bay & Western Railroad Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad Huntingdon & Broad Top Mountain Railroad & Coal Co. Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Gulf & Ship Island Railroad Illinois Terminal Railroad Indianapolis Union Railway Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway of Mexico Kansas City Southern Railway Arkansas Western Railway Kentucky & Indiana Terminal Railroad Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad Lehigh & New England Railroad Louisiana & Arkansas Railway Louisville & Nashville Railroad Maine Central Railroad Kansas, Oklahoma & Gulf Railway Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railroad Mississippi Central Railroad Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Co. of Texas Doniphan, Kensett & Searcy Railway Gulf Coast Lines: New Orleans, Texas & Mexico Railway Montour Railroad. Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway National Railways of Mexico Nevada Northern Railway New York Central Railroad Chicago River & Indiana Railroad Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad Norfolk Southern Railway Northern Pacific Railway Northwestern Pacific Railroad Pennsylvania Railroad Pennsylvania & Atlantic Railroad Waynesburg & Washington Railroad Long Island Railroad Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines Includes St. Louis Southwestern Railway of Texas San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railway Savannah & Atlanta Railway Seaboard Air Line Railway Southern Pacific Co. Texas & New Orleans Railroad Alabama Great Southern Railroad Carolina & Northwestern Railway Cincinnati, Burnside & Cumberland River Railway Danville & Western Railway Georgia Southern & Florida Railway Harriman & Northeastern Railroad High Point, Randleman, Asheboro & Southern Railroad New Orleans Terminal Co. St. Johns River Terminal Co. State University Railroad Woodstock & Flocton Railway Spokane International Railroad Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway Temiskaming & Northern Ontario Railway Commission Includes Nipissing Central Railway. Tennessee, Alabama & Georgia Railway Tennessee Central Railway Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis Texas & Pacific Railway Texas Mexican Railway Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railway Tremont & Gulf Railway Union Pacific Railroad Union Railway (Memphis) Union Railroad (Pittsburgh) Virginian Railway Wabash Railroad Western Maryland Railway Western Pacific Railroad Western Railway of Alabama Atlanta & West Point Rail Road Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Wichita Valley Railway Winston-Salem Southbound Railway Youngstown & Southern Railway, EXHIBIT B EFFECT OF WAGE CHANGES ON HIGHER WAGE BRACKETS IN THE RAILROAD INDUSTRY, 1939-43 Establishment of a minimum wage of 25 cents in the railroad industry in October 1938, and of 30 cents in October 1939, had no great effect upon the rates of pay for job classifications above those respective minimums, as there already existed at that time a substantial differential between the lower common labor rates and the skilled labor rates. The mediated settlement of December 1, 1941, however, established a general minimum rate of 46 cents. The increase of 10 cents per hour (over the statutory rate of 36 cents) was effective for all job classifications from the minimum up to the highest rates, except that the train and engine service forces (who are among the higher paid classes) received 91⁄2 cents per hour. Thus much the same increase was made in all rates, from the bottom up, and differentials were preserved, or very nearly preserved, at the insistence of the railroad labor organizations. Much the same procedure was followed in 1943. The mediated settlement of December 27 of that year provided in increase of 11 cents in the minimum rate. All job classifications with hourly rates of 47 cents but less than 57 cents were increased 10 cents per hour; while all job classifications with hourly rates of 57 cents or more were increased 9 cents per hour. In this case, the differentials were slightly reduced by reason of the fact that the lower rated classes received slightly greater increases per hour. However, all wage groups involved received an increase closely paralleling that agreed upon for the lowest or minimum wage group. EXHIBIT C.-Average straight-time rate of pay per hour-Selected classes of railroad employees: Railways of class I in the United States, year 1944 1 The rates indicated are average straight-time rates and not minimum rates. They are stated in cents per hour. Senator TUNNELL. Mr. Taylor. TESTIMONY OF TYRE TAYLOR, GENERAL COUNSEL, SOUTHERN STATES INDUSTRIAL COUNCIL Mr. TAYLOR. I appear on behalf of the Southern States Industrial Council, the headquarters of which are in the Stahlman Building, Nashville, Tenn. My address is 712 Jackson Place, Washington. Established in 1933, the council's membership is comprised of business concerns in the 16 southern States from Maryland to Texas, and including West Virginia, Missouri, and Oklahoma. This membership includes all lines of manufacturing and processing, mining, transportation, and related industries and accounts for substantial employment throughout the area. You already have in your report data on the effect of the proposed minima upon costs and prices in the case of three of the South's largest industries-cotton textiles, lumber, and tobacco. I shall not go into this except to offer for the record certain information which, in the case of cotton textiles, may serve to supplement the data already before you and, in the case of lumber, we have some estimates of what the proposed increases would do to the price of furniture. Senator ELLENDER. I don't recall having any testimony from the lumber industry. Senator TUNNELL. I don't think we have had any. (A statement from the Southern Pine Industry appears in the Appendix.) Mr. TAYLOR. Wasn't the table put in the record? Senator ELLENDER. There may have been some data put into the record. Mr. TAYLOR. The increase in costs which would result from 65 cents, 70 cents, and 75 cents. Didn't you put that in the record? Senator ELLENDER. What I had in mind was that we did not have any witnesses. Of course, I think it is imperative that we do have some testimony from the lumber industry. Mr. TAYLOR. I think this did go in [indicating document]. Senator ELLENDER. Yes, I remember putting that in myself. That was to show that an increase in wages would increase the cost of lumber. Mr. TAYLOR. Except for this-and except for two recommendations in which we should like to join with the Cotton Textile Institute-we wish to confine ourselves to certain aspects of the problem which, so far as I know, have not been discussed and some, if not all of which, involve important considerations of public policy. For example, the effect of the proposed legislation upon small business. Impact upon small business: The South of course has many large nationally and internationally known industrial establishments. However, as the House Committee on Small Business found after an exhaustive survey of the wartime problems of Southern industry in 1942-43, the overwhelming majority of our plants and companies are comparatively small. And suitably qualified omitting, for example, financial concerns and some types of industry where the investment or volume of turn-over per worker is extremely high-the number of employees indicates the relative resources of a business enterprise. We do not have comparative figures for any particular section of the country, but for the Nation as a whole we find that average earnings per job by size of firm are substantially larger for the big firms than the small ones. Thus for the period 1939-43, such averages for third quarter earnings were as follows: I might say, gentlemen, that while that is something I have been convinced about in my own mind for a long time, and something about which I think the committee might take judicial notice, it is awfully difficult, or I found it so, to obtain any very satisfactory statistics for that. There seems to be a great dearth of data on this subject of earnings by size of a firm, not only for the country as a whole but there is nothing so far as I have been able to find where it is broken down by regions. On page 3 is a table. The source of these figures is the Bureau of Old Age and Survivors Insurance, and it was quoted in an article. entitled "Industrial Concentration of Employment" in the April 1945 issue of Current Business by Donald W. Paden. Now, this is a table of the average earnings per job, by size of firm, for the third quarters during the period 1939 to 1943. As you will note, in the first column, which starts off with the average for all classes; that is, the smallest, the middle size, and the largest firm, it starts off with 54 cents an hour, and by 1943 it gets up to 87 cents. In the case of the smallest one it started off with 47 cents an hour and gets up to 69 cents. That is a percentage increase, an average increase, of 44.8 percent. In the middle size group, 50 to 999 employees, it starts off in 1939 with 52 cents and gets up to 80 cents in 1943, or a 54-percent increase. For the largest firms, those with a thousand or more employees, it starts off in 1939 with 63 cents, and by 1943 it got up to $1.02, or an increase of 63 percent. Senator SMITH. Apparently none today are under 65 cents. Senator SMITH. I see. There might be some. Mr. TAYLOR. Yes, sir. (The table above referred to is as follows:) Average earnings per job, by size of firm, third quarter, 1939–43 1 1 1 Source: Bureau of Old Age and Survivors Insurance, Social Security Board, quoted in article, Industrial Concentration of Employment, by Donald W. Paden, April 1945 issue of Current Business, published by Department of Commerce. 2 40-hour week. Mr. TAYLOR. This table was constructed by dividing the quarterly earnings by 13 to get the weekly earnings and this by 40 to get the hourly earnings. Since the quarterly earnings included overtime, the straight-time hourly rates were undoubtedly lower than the table indicates. And in the case of the South, a further downward adjustment would be necessary to reflect existing wage differentials. Yet even so and leaving these adjustments out of account-it will be noted that the average hourly wages paid by the smallest firms in 1943 were only 3.6 cents above the proposed statutory minimum and more than 6 cents less than the 75 cents to be established within 2 years. The impact upon the middle group would be less, while the third group the largest concerns-would feel it least of all. |